Rock Lovers Displeased with PACE Board's Hip Hop Monopoly
Neelofer Qadir
Issue date: 3/1/06 Section: Features
What do hip hop, slam poetry and WPUB interludes all have in common? If you answered bangin' ghetto beats, you'd be right but still wrong at the same time. No, the correct answer, and you can take this to your GRE prep class, is that they are all completely overused at Pace events. Though the DJs at WPUB play music from hip hop and Reggaeton to the broad spectrum of rock (screamo to acoustic), the listeners are barely in double digits for most shows and consist mostly of friends of the DJs.
As its name suggests, the Programming and Campus Entertainment (PACE) Board, an organization that receives one-third of each student's $76 student activities fee (SAF), is primarily responsible for being the largest producer for entertainment on campus. Though PACE Board's movie series provides a wide variety of films from Bad Boys II to Enron, their music performances differ as little as one generic radio-friendly rapper to another.
Co-director for College Rock at WPUB Heather O'Shea said, "We were upset because a lot of Pace events cater to one type of person. We wanted to do something different."
So, if an event by the radio station put together on a minimal budget can rake in a capacity crowd in the Spotlight on a Thirsty Thursday, the situation begs why PACE Board with an exponentially larger budget wouldn't put forth effort to obtain a rock band to change up the pace (pun intended).
Junior communication studies major Sabrina Wong said, "Any sort of variety would be nice because we have been bombarded with typically rap and hip hop artists… They have been very popular among the Pace community, which is great, but I would not mind getting more variety."
Sophomore history and sociology major Ben Stewart offered some advice for PACE Board: "Try to recruit from a variety of genres to reach out to the entire student population."
"In particular, I'd like to see Jack Johnson or Death Cab for Cutie," Stewart said.
But, variety in the musical artists recruited by organizations such as the PACE Board is not the only thing missing. Junior education major Erin Mark recommended having a comedian: "A real big one," she said, adding, "not Godfrey like last time."
As its name suggests, the Programming and Campus Entertainment (PACE) Board, an organization that receives one-third of each student's $76 student activities fee (SAF), is primarily responsible for being the largest producer for entertainment on campus. Though PACE Board's movie series provides a wide variety of films from Bad Boys II to Enron, their music performances differ as little as one generic radio-friendly rapper to another.
Co-director for College Rock at WPUB Heather O'Shea said, "We were upset because a lot of Pace events cater to one type of person. We wanted to do something different."
So, if an event by the radio station put together on a minimal budget can rake in a capacity crowd in the Spotlight on a Thirsty Thursday, the situation begs why PACE Board with an exponentially larger budget wouldn't put forth effort to obtain a rock band to change up the pace (pun intended).
Junior communication studies major Sabrina Wong said, "Any sort of variety would be nice because we have been bombarded with typically rap and hip hop artists… They have been very popular among the Pace community, which is great, but I would not mind getting more variety."
Sophomore history and sociology major Ben Stewart offered some advice for PACE Board: "Try to recruit from a variety of genres to reach out to the entire student population."
"In particular, I'd like to see Jack Johnson or Death Cab for Cutie," Stewart said.
But, variety in the musical artists recruited by organizations such as the PACE Board is not the only thing missing. Junior education major Erin Mark recommended having a comedian: "A real big one," she said, adding, "not Godfrey like last time."